Euobserver.com

The EU is driving a hard "EU-first" policy on vaccines and almost nobody talks about it. Maybe because there is a lot of sugar-coating put on a hard and ruthless policy.

These are dark times in Belarus, with the government tightening the screws like never before. They are preparing for spring just as much as the opponents of the regime are.

EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell told MEPs on Monday that his service did not have the resources to counter Chinese and Russian disinformation on the same, huge scale that it is being used against Europe. "We don't have the capacity to produce massively information presenting our views," he said. The foreign service has a small debunking unit, called East Stratcom, but its mandate covers Russian propaganda only.

Financial services firms moved some €1.5 trillion of assets and 7,600 jobs from the City of London to Europe due to Brexit, according to a survey by auditing company EY. "The days of significant swathes of asset and job relocation announcements appear to have passed and will likely be replaced by the slower yet ongoing movement of people and assets to Europe for compliance purposes," EY noted in its report.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam is certifying a vaccine-making facility in India, the Serum Institute of India (SII), enabling it to make extra doses of British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca's drugs there for export to Europe, Reuters reports, citing anonymous sources. The EMA audit is to be finished in March. AstraZeneca failed to deliver its EU vaccine orders on time. SII said it was prioritising production for India's domestic use.

Some 400 MEPs and national MPs have signed an open letter to EU leaders and foreign ministers saying they should urge the new US administration to stop what they called Israel's "rapidly progressing de facto annexation [of Palestine's Israeli-occupied West Bank], especially through accelerated settlement expansion and demolitions of Palestinian structures." They also said the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip "remains at risk of violent escalation at any moment".

Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš has tightened lockdown measures, saying hospitals were nearing collapse as the number of patients in intensive care jumped to record levels, Reuters reports. The country of 10.7 million has the highest-per-capita infection rate in the world over the past week, according to the Our World in Data website, 11 times higher than Germany.

MEPs are scheduled to vote on Wednesday to change the rules of procedure of the centre-right European People's Party parliamentary group to allow the suspension of a member party.

The debate about the much-delayed Conference on the Future of Europe so far has been locked in endless institutional infighting over who should lead the event - lowering the expectations about what can be achieved in the coming months.

Polish president Andrzej Duda has talked with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about buying the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine, his aide said, as the country looked for ways to speed up vaccination of its citizens, The Guardian writes. The health minister told a Monday press conference that the UK strain is found in 70 percent of infections in the country's current third wave.

Nearly two-thirds of Russians are not willing to receive the country's Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe the new coronavirus was created artificially as a biological weapon, Reuters reports. Most respondents cited side effects - which can include fever and fatigue - as the main reason for not wanting to get vaccinated. Some 64 percent thought the new coronavirus was created as a biological weapon.

People over the age of 55 in Belgium could be given the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, as the government seeks to "reset" its heavily-criticised vaccination programme, The Guardian reports. Belgium decided last month to only giving the vaccine to younger groups. But images of empty vaccination centres has led to an outcry. Just 6.96 percent of the Belgian population has received a jab, compared with 30.14 percent in the UK.

The European Commission is set to unveil a legislative proposal on a "digital green pass" to allow vaccinated people to travel more freely for the summer. But Belgium says the pass risks discrimination against people unable to get the jab.

Slovakia has launched a mass vaccination programme aimed at teachers and childcare workers. Estonia, for its part, has begun inoculating frontline workers including teachers, police officers and members of the armed forces ahead of schedule.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to jail by a court on Monday, after being found guilty of corruption and influence-peddling. Sarkozy received a three-year term, of which two are suspended. He is expected to appeal, and is unlikely to spend any time in prison, given he can wear an electronic bracelet or remain confined at home. Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012.

China used coronavirus prevention measures, intimidation and visa curbs to limit foreign reporting in 2020, ushering in a "rapid decline in media freedom," the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) said on Monday, Reuters reports. "All arms of state power - including surveillance systems introduced to curb coronavirus - were used to harass and intimidate journalists, their Chinese colleagues, and those whom the foreign press sought to interview," it said.

More than 20m people in the UK have been given at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the country's health secretary, Matt Hancock, has announced, Deutsche Welle reports. The UK will begin vaccinating people over 40 in March, as the country pushes ahead with first doses. The British government is aiming to give the entire adult population at least one dose of vaccine by the end of July.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić has attacked EU proposals to issue 'vaccine passports' enabling people who had had the jab to travel freely, following EU leaders' talks last week. The passports were "meaningless" and "anti-European", he said, because they would force people to take the drug and would create discrimination. France and Germany "were against that in the beginning, but obviously the pressure is huge", Vučić told TV Prva Saturday.

Germany has added France's eastern Moselle region to its list of "variant of concern" areas, triggering tougher entry requirements at the border between the two neighbours, Deutsche Welle writes. Under the new restrictions, almost all travel will be banned. There are only a few exemptions, including lorry drivers and certain key workers. Anyone crossing the border will have to provide a valid negative Covid-19 test.

Italian researchers have discovered that healthcare workers with obesity produced only about half the amount of antibodies in response to a second dose of the jab compared with healthy people, The Guardian writes. Although it was too soon to know what this means for the efficacy of the vaccine, it might imply that people with obesity need an additional dose to ensure they are adequately protected against coronavirus.